Is that just this year? I just don’t think it’s a coincidence our franchise player for the past decade is all of a sudden struggling extra at the same time we moved him to LF. He’s still been out of his comfort zone all year. He’s fine at DH, but I didn’t push for that as ideally Alvarez would be in that spot. Altuve is perfect at DH until he returns but I’m more thinking about October than July games against the Rockies
Altuve HAS been the franchise player for the last decade. But he no longer is. He's more face of the franchise than franchise player, He's still a perfectly fine 3rd or 4th best hitter on a contending team and a terrible defender that needs to be in the defensive spot that touches the ball the least, if he's not a DH. The Astros have handled him perfectly this year and need to keep adjusting for 4 more.
We definitely disagree on him being handled perfectly this year, but that’s ok. I just think trading a bad defensive 2B for a bad defensive almost disaster at LF was silly. Made more of a problem than solved one for what is overall a really good defensive team. It made sense when trying to keep Bregman, but after he left the move to LF was an unnecessary distraction. EDIT: We’re waking up on 4th of July morning with the 3rd best record in baseball, big division lead, and like 17 games over .500. So most of this is nit picking what has been a great year of managing an injury filled roster so far
I would agree about the nit picking. But Altuve having the fewest chances in LF per game and fewest chances at 2B per game in all of MLB is absolutely master class. It's almost like they are reducing the negative impact his defense has on a game which contributes to a winning record. Weird.
Brandon Donovan and Sonny Gray + $8M in 2025 and $8M in 2026. For Brice Matthews, Ryan Gusto, Colton Gordon, Shay Whitcomb, Brendon Rodgers, and Chas McCormick. It would add approx. $2.6M to 2025 CBT payroll. 2025 2nd half/postseason Pena SS Donovan 2B/LF Paredes 3B Yordan DH/LF Altuve LF/2B/ DH Smith RF Diaz/Caratini C Walker 1B Meyers CF Bench: Dubon, Melton, Dezenzo Rotation Brown Framber Gray ( Arrighetti/Javier once healthy) Mccullers (Garcia once healthy) Walter Alexander/Ullola (France once healthy) Gray is under contract for 2026 and club option for 2027 so adds another playoff caliber SP. Matthews becomes expendable because Donovan has 2 additional years of control. Cadinals do it because: Gorman, Whitcomb, or Rodgers can slide into Donovan's 2B spot and Matthews is 2B of the future starting in 2026. They finally get rid of Gray's contract that they have prioritized since the offseason while gaining 2 young starters controllable for 5+ years.
Could Altuve play 1st or is he so small that he really doesn’t have the reach to sometimes go out and put some of these more errant infield throws.
1st base is a tttt he only position where you can't overcome size. In a normal world we wouldn't have an Astros legend that is 5'5" tall that is aging and a 6'5" DH who is made of glass. Normally one of them would be able to play 1st and one would play DH. I'm not for trading Alvarez because we would never get equal value back but at some point Altuve and Alvarez can't be regulars on the same team. It may not be this year or next but eventually Altuve will need to play DH.
